quotations about wisdom
True wisdom is not found in yes-or-no answers, but in the open mind of not-knowing.
MELVIN MCLEOD
"Benefit, Not Benefits", Lion's Roar, April 3, 2017
Wisdom is at all times the least burdensome traveling pack.
WILLIAM CAMDEN
attributed, Day's Collacon
Many things imperfect by nature are made perfect by wisdom.
NICCOLO UZZANO
attributed, Day's Collacon
Wisdom consists in being able to distinguish among dangers and make a choice of the least harmful.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI
The Prince
Wisdom teaches us to live content upon a bone gnawed bare.
ABRAHAM MILLER
Unmoral Maxims
A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.
WILLIAM BLAKE
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
A man remains ignorant because he loves ignorance, and chooses ignorant thoughts; a man becomes wise because he loves wisdom and chooses wise thoughts.
JAMES ALLEN
Above Life's Turmoil
A wise man is out of the reach of fortune.
THOMAS BROWNE
Religio Medici
Some people look to religion. Others, great works of classical art. For most of us though, life lessons are to be found in the movies (or even its unruly, younger sibling: Television), where guiding wisdom is dispensed by sages as undoubtable as Yoda, Don Corleone or Hannibal Lector.
MATTHEW PRIEST
"21 nuggets of cinematic wisdom", Esquire, January 14, 2016
Second thoughts are ever wiser.
EURIPIDES
Hippolytus
Never, no, never did Nature say one thing and Wisdom say another.
EDMUND BURKE
Letters on a Regicide Peace
Wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good.
GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ
Love in the Time of Cholera
Be wise before the storm.
EDWARD COUNSEL
Maxims
No, that is the great fallacy: the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
A Farewell to Arms
There are few who would need advisers, if they were only accustomed to appeal to themselves in their calmest, holiest moments. If, when embarrassed with doubt as to any course of action, they would turn aside from the immediate tumult of the world, and from the vain speaking of those who "darken counsel by words without knowledge;" and would then commune with their hearts alone, at night, the heavens their silent counsellors, they would act not always in accordance with the wise men of this world, but with that wisdom which bringeth peace.
ARTHUR HELPS
Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd
How poor is the wisdom of men, and how uncertain their forecast!
ST. THERESA
attributed, Day's Collacon
Wisdom is a power that allows one to stay on the fountainhead. Fountainhead signifies the origin of water. God is the origin of the living water.
JOSHUA CHOON-MIN KANG
"Return to the Word Repeatedly", Christianity Daily, January 26, 2016
The wise may find in trifles light as atoms in the air, some useful lesson to enrich the mind.
JOHN GODFREY SAXE
"King Solomon and the Bees"
Wisdom is also a deeper consciousness of ignorance.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
WILLIAM JAMES
Principles of Psychology